The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 257 (757)

I survived the weekend, though my fatigue level says I'm still in recovery. As I read that the number of positive covid tests to come out of the Gridiron Club dinner is up to 72, I can't help but wonder if covid was lurking in the crowds at the quilt show. At any one moment, I could see only three or four other people wearing masks, and some were of the cloth kind that offer little real protection. A person who saw me Saturday morning said my mask was inspiring her to put hers on. I guess she didn't want to be a loner. Two years until the next quilt show; I'll likely have recovered by then and hope not to be wearing a mask.

As I said, the Gridiron Club dinner covid count is up to 72. A third Cabinet member is among them. The mayor of New York City has also tested positive. He was at the dinner but also attended other events at which he might have been exposed. The 72 accounts for about 10 percent of the people at the dinner. POTUS was not at the dinner, though the number of people around him who have tested positive continues to increase. Asked about the possibility of POTUS's becoming infected, Dr. Fauci said that the covid protocols protecting POTUS are "pretty strong."

Mask-wearing is at its lowest level since April 2020. Meanwhile, a new report suggests that of every 100 covid cases, only seven are recorded in official tallies.  The associate director of global health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation offers, "We're fighting smaller fires instead of a raging blaze across the country and those smaller fires can be disruptive. It leaves everyone to choose their own adventure when it comes to pandemic response and individual behaviors." I don't mind if I do ... continue masking, that is.

The covid surge in China continues. Guangzhou, a manufacturing center, is closing to arrivals and moving elementary and middle schools to virtual instruction. The entire city will be tested. For now, people can only leave the city if they have a "definite need" and test negative before they leave. Shanghai is starting to reopen even as cases there continue to rise. "Appropriate activity" will be allowed in neighborhoods in which there have been no cases for at least two weeks.  

A study of breakthrough Omicron infections found the viral load to be lower in people who had gotten boosters. There was no difference in viral load, however, between people who had been vaccinated but not boosted and people who had not been vaccinated. In other words, boosters make a big difference.